Desert City Soundtrack
Funeral Car
Deep Elm
Desert City Soundtrack combines equal parts Nick Cave and Thursday to create a dark, somber and confused album of emotional whirlwind. It’s almost as if they are searching for an identity, while at the same time mocking those who feel the need to have an identity.
Several of the songs are driven by slow, laborious piano lines, reminiscent of Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads. The vocalist has a deep, breathy voice that plays beautifully with the sad piano melodies, which are fairly simple in structure yet big on emotive connotation. What’s interesting, though, is that while these songs would be fine (even better) on their own, the band breaks into these melodic emo-core breakdowns from time to time. I’m not sure if they’re trying to prove how tough they are or what, but it doesn’t fit. It’s rather unnecessary for them to pound their instruments after creating such pretty music; it’s actually quite bothersome.
As a whole, it seems as if Desert City Soundtrack may be trying to create a niche for themselves on the aptly titled Funeral Car; it’s like they want to be known as “the band who starts out with pianos and then rocks out.” I guess if that’s who they want to be, fine, but I prefer the slower, piano driven DSC over the “we like Thursday” DSC.
Deep Elm: http://www.deepelm.com/
